G1 Climax 30 Night 11 Results: Shingo Takagi wins huge main event, Okada sneaks out a cheeky win
With the G1 Climax 30 hitting its midway point, many storylines and trends have surfaced. The standings are getting more interesting in both groups. The B Block has been giving us decent to good shows, while the A Block with their stacked lineup have delivered truly exciting cards. For Night 11 of the G1 Climax 30, the A Block delivered one of the best shows of the entire tournament and possibly the year from NJPW.
The main event was a first-time-ever encounter with Kota Ibushi facing Shingo Takagi. We got two other first-time-ever contests on this evening with Minoru Suzuki battling Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada against Jeff Cobb. The other A Block group matches would be Jay White versus Taichi and Tomohiro Ishii facing Yujiro Takahashi.
This would be our second straight night in Hiroshima in front of a limited capacity crowd of about 2000 fans. The A Block standings heading into G1 Climax Night 11 were:
- Kota Ibushi (4-1)
- Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Will Ospreay (3-2)
- Jeff Cobb, Shingo Takagi, Tomohiro Ishii (2-3)
- Yujiro Takahashi (0-5)
For Night 11, your "Matches To Watch" are:
- Minoru Suzuki vs. Will Ospreay
- Taichi vs. Jay White
- Kota Ibushi vs. Shingo Takagi
To kick things off on this night, we got another contest between the Young Lions of NJPW in what has been coined the C Block of the G1 Climax 30.
G1 Climax 30 Night 11: Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji
The opening match of the evening was the New Japan dojo trainees of Gabriel Kidd against Yota Tsuji. These two men fought to a time limit draw in their last meeting on G1 Climax 30 Night 8.
Both men started out fast, exchanging strikes at the bell. Control moved back and forth here. Neither man took advantage for long in this G1 Climax 30 opening contest. We got a forearm exchange that ended with Kidd landing a beautiful dropkick.
Kidd tried following with his double underhook butterfly suplex, but Tsuji blocked. Yota hit a rolling powerslam and followed up with his spear for a near fall. He then locked on the Boston Crab. After some struggle, Tsuji pulled Kidd to mid-ring and sat back to get the submission win in just under seven minutes. Yota Tsuji is the first to four wins out of the Young Lions in the "unofficial" C Block of the G1 Climax 30.
This was a solid opener, with both Young Lions being highly competitive and aggressive in this one. You felt that they both wanted the win badly here.
Results: Yota Tsuji defeats Gabriel Kidd via submission
Star Rating: ***